Philadelphia Flyers

Team Related News

Johnny Gaudreau said it would be "sweet" to play for the Philadelphia Flyers someday.

Gaudreau grew up a Flyers fan. "I’ve got a ton of family here, all my friends — I actually have a wedding this week here in South Jersey," Gaudreau said. "All my friends come back here, all my good friends, and kids that I’ve played with my whole life are from South Jersey. So, it would be sweet to play here some day. You know you never know in sports, but it’s a lot of support back here in South Jersey and the Philly area." We'll see what the future holds for Gaudreau, but he's made a long-term commitment to the Calgary Flames, so he won't be changing teams anytime soon. This will be the second season of his six-year, $40.5 million contract.

The Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets have reportedly contacted the Rangers about the possibility of acquiring Antti Raanta.

Raanta has one season left on his two-year, $2 million contract and would be do for a substantial raise after that if his 2017-18 campaign ends up being anything like this season where he posted a 2.26 GAA and .922 save percentage in 30 contests. The Rangers likely wouldn't be able to afford that and Henrik Lundqvist, so that's when the two teams would probably part ways. However, there's a more immediate consideration and that's the fact that Vegas could simply scoop Raanta up in the expansion draft. Given the chance of that happening, it wouldn't be surprising if the Rangers traded Raanta now rather than let him be taken for nothing by Vegas. An alternative solution would be to work out a deal with Vegas where the Golden Knights take a different player from the Rangers in exchange for some other compensation like a draft pick.

This was a draft of big movement. The Devils moved from a projected fifth spot to first, but they weren't the team that saw the biggest jump. The Philadelphia Flyers were projected to pick 13th overall, but they have moved up to the second spot. The Dallas Stars will round out the top three despite being projected to pick eighth. Meanwhile the big loser was the Colorado Avalanche, which had the best odds of winning the draft, but will instead select fourth. The Vancouver Canucks will round out the top five while the expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights will pick sixth.